Additional filters

Results: 10

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world. As it shows few symptoms, it has often spread by the time it is diagnosed. Consequently surgery is usually not possible, and drug treatment, typically chemotherapy, is required.

The drug nivolumab (trade name: Opdivo) has been approved in Germany since July 2015 for the treatment of advanced lung cancer. It is an option for adults with advanced non-small cell carcinoma who have already had chemotherapy.

In 2016, the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG, Germany) looked into whether people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that is not a squamous cell carcinoma can benefit from treatment with nivolumab. The drug is an option for adult patients who have already had chemotherapy.What was nivolumab compared with?For this group of people, the manufacturer provided one study involving 582 participants. 292 of them were given nivolumab, and 290 received docetaxel. A study comparing nivolumab with the other supportive treatments pemetrexed, gefitinib, erlotinib, crizotinib or supportive treatment (BSC) was not available. So it is not possible to tell whether nivolumab has any advantages or disadvantages compared with other treatments. The following results only apply to the comparison of nivolumab and docetaxel.

Afatinib (trade name: Giotrif) has been approved in Germany since September 2013 for the treatment of a specific type of advanced lung cancer. It can be used in adult patients who have mutated cancer cells that can lead to faster tumor growth.

Osimertinib (trade name: Tagrisso) has been approved in Germany since March 2016 for the treatment of a certain type of advanced lung cancer. This new drug can be used in adult patients who have a specific mutation in their cancer cells that can lead to faster tumor growth.

Ramucirumab (trade name: Cyramza) has been approved in Germany since January 2016 for the treatment of advanced lung cancer. The drug is used in combination with docetaxel. It is an option for adult patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma who have already had platinum-based chemotherapy.

Nintedanib (trade name: Vargatef) has been approved in Germany since 2014 for the treatment of a certain type of advanced lung cancer. It is an option for adult patients with adenocarcinoma of the lung who have already had chemotherapy.

Oral cancers (cancer of the mouth and cancer of the throat) are the sixth most common cancer worldwide, accounting for an estimated 4% of all cancers. There is a higher frequency of these cancers in men. Smoking, alcohol consumption and betel quid chewing are the main risk factors. Cancer of the throat is associated with infection from the human papilloma virus (HPV), which can be transmitted through sexual contact. Low socioeconomic status (a measure of a person's income, education and occupation in relation to other people's) is associated with a higher frequency of oral cancers and poorer survival rates. Survival following a diagnosis of mouth or throat cancer remains poor, with around 50% of people still alive at five years (five‐year survival rate).